The Lure and Peril of Small Marine Aquarium

The Lure and Peril of Small Marine Aquarium

Since the cartoon movie "Finding Nemo", there has been pick up of marine keeping among beginners and of course there was renewed interest among existing hobbyists. Not only has this created more supplies of marine fish and corals, but also more products and LFS due to the demand. However, that's not my topic today. It is the lure and peril of small marine aquarium.

The unfortunate part is when a newbie sees a small setup (5 to 20 gallons) by a LFS and finds the costs reasonably priced, most probably it is going to be a "cash and carry"case. Some probable have some experience keeping FW before (maybe when they were younger), some completely no idea and others - the minority.

Every fortnightly, I hang around at LFS for about 2-4 hours per shop, and chances are 8 of 10 times, the 8 walk out of the LFS empty handed. The 2 left, 1 would end up having a FW tank because the task of changing water and maintaining so many parameters is just too daunting. The 1 probably got himself 1 SW small tank. Of course my sample size is small and restricted to mostly weekends, where activities at LFS are higher compared to weekdays.

The fortunate thing here is these walk-ins are by-passers and they are usually with their girlfriends, wife or partners. Their better half (worser half) would disagree on the costs of setup and the hassle of maintaining but they all agree in the beauty.

The unfortunate or fortunate guy (depends on how u look at it, welcome to the hobby of pocket emptying) would be die-hard - must get an aquarium. However, how many would actually research before emptying pockets to get their tanks. I for 1 was like the newbie only thing I already had an existing FW 20 gallon tank which I converted into SW and killed about 4 clowns and 1 anemone before calling it quits. Even then I had John Tullock's book on Clownfish and Sea Anemones Host.

It was only after several months later I decided into getting back into the hobby. However, this time I had the book Conscientious Marine Aquarist by Robert Fenner which guided me. I must also give credits to John Tullock's book on Natural Reef Aquariums too. John said that the greatest likelihood of success with a first time marine aquarium is to be a 40 to 100 gallon. The stability of larger systems compensates the lack of experience and knowledge.

That was why I failed in the 20 gallon tank. I had the following problems, I did not cycle the tank long enough. After testing for ammonia and I assume the coast was clear. I did not realise about NO2 and NO3 and each time 1 clown died I added another. How would first cycle be complete when it was not given a chance!

Having realised this, my second attempt I was armed with that knowledge, books and a 75 gallon tank. I cycled until ammonia, NO2 and NO3 stablise about 4 weeks later and added slowly. Fortunate to say did not have a fish loss except for later months I lost my gobies and flame angel due to poor diets. At that time, Deep_end just carried cyclop-eeze. My flame was to depressed to eat.

There is no way to stop any newbie from getting their first tank. None of us from www.myfish.info can be there to advise these newcomers everyday, and even so LFS will probably kick us out. And if u did, would they listen? Those from other sub-forums probably can consult the pool of knowledge here before diving into the sea. 1 out of 20 after or before getting their tanks would pop into 1 of the many forums that support marine hobbyist, fortunate they found us, unfortunate we could not get the rest.

For the benefit of existing members and future guests in this forum, here are 4 suggestions by John Tullock on small marine setups.
1) Absolutely rigorous attention must be paid to maintenance chores, such as water change evaporation top up.
2) Choose appropriate invertebrate specimens,
Such as leather corals, mushrooms that are tolerant of less pristine water quality. No newbie should start with SPS under any circumstances. Spend time developing aquarium keeping skills to avoid the needless sacrifice of demand species. (Don?t lah buy the SPS, and deter others from getting their hands on them, it will only push demand and price, next time u r ready u may have paid the price hike.)

3) For best results, do not add fish into small reef tanks, as fish places greatest demand on any aquarium system. Restrict to hardy species like shrimps, fanworms and small hermit crabs.

4) Overfeeding the fish always lead to trouble. Few experienced hobbyists, much less beginners, have the patience and restraint necessary to provide several marine fish housed in a small aquarium with an adequate diet, while at the same time avoid an accumulation of excess nutrient in the water. One of the characteristics of a seasoned talent is the ability to make an inherently difficult achievement appear simple.

The author concludes with this statement: Novices would be wise to note that the most celebrated small marine reef aquariums are the creations of expert aquarists.

The least this document can do is encourage the bigger the better, arm yourself with knowledge and encourage more Malaysians to visit this forum.

Good write up slcw.....but i would beg to differ on a few points noted. For one, i don't know when the book was written but i assume that it was sometime ago....essentially....in the past few years, technologies change and experience and knowledge have grown as well....

To cut a long story short....i believe that Nano's are truly not as difficult to maintain as it is commonly misconceived out there. The thing is, the practice of nano reef keeping is merely slightly different from micro reef keeping (ie 40 - 100 gallon tanks)

One of the biggest mistakes i see being made by ppl keeping nano reefs and thus ultimately adding to the common misconception out there is a few thing:

1. Having waaaay too many fishes in a tank. A common trend with ppl in this region...malaysia and singapore particularly....is that ppl here tend to load their tanks up with more fishes than the system can handle....it's a pretty sad practice as this not only increases bioload but also crams the fishes. As an example....in a 20 gallon....one should only have a max of 3 fishes....4 would be possible but pushing it....even so, fish choices are important as well...which brings me to my next point.

2. Picking the wrong fishes for a nano.....like it or not.....keeping a nano will severely limit ones choices of fishes....simply cos some fishes will quickly outgrow the tank in a short period of time. No matter what an LFS says.....a Tang will NEVER BE SUITABLE FOR A NANO!! First off, these fishes require much swimming room and a nano can by no means cater to that...no matter how small the fishes are. Angel fishes are a bad choice as well.....for a list of nano suitable fishes....refer to - http://www.nano-reef.com/fish/

3. Coral selection is another issue....understanding that some corals have stinging tendencies, and that there just isn't that much room in a nano, certain corals should either be avoided or strategically placed in the tank.

Then again, if you think about it...these issues would pretty much apply to those with micro reefs as well...the issue with overcrowding a tank is seen in even bigger tanks with ppl having more fishes than the system can handle, the problem with them is that they won't see the effects till much later due to the larger volume of water....to which, they will have to learn to either cut down on feeding or the number of fishes period. Ultimately a common lessen learnt by everyone and not just exclusive to nano reefers. Even coral selection....some corals just should be in a reef but irresponsible reefers buy them all the time (ie. Goniopora...if you need to ask why...then obviously u haven't done enough research on it)

The common denominating factor thats severely limiting these reefers is KNOWLEDGE...which thankfully, forums like these serve it's purpose in educating...but like u said...unfortunately we can't reach out to everyone but we can help those who chose to be helped....

So in closing.....for those who really are keen on maintaining a nano reef, please do urself and everyone else a favor and check out this website ( www.nano-reef.com ) and go to the articles section first to read up.....it's been close to a year for me and my tank has brought much joy.....and a nano was my first tank....and not to brag or anything but i believe that it has been more of a success that many of the other tanks i've seen out there....not because i'm good or anything....just because i chose to read, listen and learn from others....and what better place to learn than from practitioners themselves. There are many sites out there but this one is dedicated to nano reef keeping so if that's the direction u plan to take....hop on over to

www.nano-reef.com

I know i sound like a walkin ad but that's not my intention....i just believe that the site has been an invaluable resource for me and can be to many others as well.....so cheers and have a good read.... [Wink]